An Unerring Return
by Soxrobin
Summary: Orimura Ichika works undercover for an independent agency, tasked to inspect IS academy.
1. Challenge Accepted

A/N : This is my first fanfic; while I've had many ideas for other fanfics, I never had the time, dedication, or motivation to actually start writing one until now, because I have a lot of time during the summer. :P  
I'm not interested in adding Chifuyu in, sorry. Although Ichika may have other family.

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"The school is a congregation of the daughters of powerful families around the world. This poses a potential security hazard as not only hostages, but easily accessible repositories of sensitive information. Your job will be to assess the safety of the students and audit each of the courses to ensure the facility is being run at the maximum efficiency, which is of utmost importance due to the vast amount of financial resources the academy receives. We have developed technology that will allow you to become compatible with the IS, which is set to be implanted inside of you next week. In all communications with us you will be known as "Third", as previously we have sent two other agents, both of whom failed. The first agent failed because she decided to forget her history with us and join the other IS students. It was then we decided that we should choose male agents who would be less likely to join them. The second agent requested an immediate operation abort and extraction after he was taken for questioning when he was discovered in areas students were not permitted to be in. We do hope you will avoid the mistakes of your predecessors. While we go through the process of your registration, your next 3 weeks will be familiarizing yourself with IS equipment. Your previous physical and weapons training is already sufficient for most any dangerous situation. Unfortunately, we do not own any IS ourselves, but we do have faith in both your physical abilities to convert the theory into reality and your ability to quickly learn and adapt, as you have previously demonstrated in your training. "

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So what do you think? I'll try to make chapters slightly longer. Drop a review if you're interested! Also, I'd appreciate if anyone could beta-read. Thanks!

EDIT: longer chapters ahead.


	2. Final Briefing

As I watched the clouds race by on the airplane to IS academy, the pilot gave me my final instructions:

"Several other agents and I are stationed in the surrounding village for backup and to relay any messages or any equipment. However, do not search for them; they will come find you. Take this necklace here."

Upon closer examination, I saw it was a simple loop of string with a cross attached: a religious necklace.

"Simply rotate the bottom of the cross clockwise when you are in the village during the students' weekend visits if you wish to have an agent contact you. Rotate counter-clockwise if you require a mission abort and immediate extraction. "

"Finally, contrary to our previous expectations that the female students were not experienced in dealing with males, our agents reported that as our previous agent was male, they have been shoring up defenses against males. Students are required to visit the village every weekend to talk with the town inhabitants, many of whom are male. The few upper-year students in charge of handling the interviews (and we have no doubt you will be questioned as you are male) have reportedly been practicing on males who attend the other village high school how to use their bodies as distractions during these interviews for the last year. Since the three weeks was better spent on reviewing IS material, and was not enough time to prepare as compared to the entire year of experience they have, we have opted to instead give you contact lenses designed slightly blur your vision. Prior to the interview, put the contacts on. Keep in mind they will become suspicious if it appears you are speaking completely rationally, so it's best if you probably act slightly distracted during the questioning."

And for the remainder of the flight I reviewed all of the IS theory I learned over the intensive 3-week course, which covered the first semester's worth of theory to be taught.

The plane landed safely on the designated runway of IS academy. As the plane came to a stop, even from the plane window I could see that the uniformed girl waving us over was particularly pretty.

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Wow so it's harder than I imagined to edit and post chapters onto fanfiction :O


	3. Interviews are Tiring

I hadn't had many chances to meet many girls of my age while I had been in training, so I took this chance to appreciate the beauty of the girl walking over to the aircraft, without the girl being able to see through the window. As I did so, the pilot chuckled, "They must be really suspicious of you. That's the guard captain. She'll most likely be the one interviewing you, probably immediately so you get the least information about the layout of the campus. You should insert your contacts in right about now."

I reluctantly obliged, and was surprised by the degree to which the contacts blurred my vision. Disoriented, I got up and walked around a few times to get used to it, as the portable stairway was moved to the plane's open door. Despite being able to see each individual stair to a certain extent, I still took each stair downward onto the tarmac very carefully and slowly while holding the handrails like they were my lifeline, as unaccustomed as I was to the lenses. Through my contacts, I saw a hand thrust in front of me, and looked up to see what was probably the same girl I saw earlier extending a hand to me. Pity I couldn't see with as much clarity as before. I immediately straightened up, hoping she hadn't noticed my previous behavior and guessed the reason.

"Airsick?" she asked sympathetically.

Surprised, I took both the reason she offered and her hand, and nodded, while also enjoying the cool feel of her slender fingers sliding over my hand, before realizing that if I was prone to airsickness I shouldn't be interested in IS. _Shit._

But she simply nodded. "Don't worry, you'll get used to it. I did. And IS are sturdy enough to avoid turbulence. I'm Tatenashi Sarashiki, nice to meet you."

As we exited the tarmac, I responded with "I'm Orimura Ichika, nice to meet you." She led me past what I guessed were their cargo-loading facilities to a separate room, saying, "I'm required to do a standard background interview of every student. Relax, I promise I won't reveal any of your information to any of the other students."

The room consisted of two couches facing each other with a table in the middle. I sat in the middle of one, expecting her to sit across the table on the other couch. But instead, she sat next to me, on the same couch. Panicking, I scrambled to the edge of the couch when I heard her laugh, a laugh that made me stop, for that laugh sounded so beautiful to me I could just sit where I was and enjoy her laugh for hours.

"Oh come now, I don't bite. I prefer to keep things informal, so I can get to know you better."

She smiled and asked "So how did you, a boy, even get started with IS?"

Although I couldn't clearly see her smile, it felt like such a genuine smile that I felt I should just forget my training and beg for her forgiveness for the false information that was no doubt listed on my profile page sitting in front of her. As I struggled to mentally regroup, I realized that I didn't even have to act distracted – I _was_ distracted. As I recognized this, I began to recite the falsified story my superiors had concocted, while mentally apologizing to Tatenashi-senpai.

"I needed to make some money, and I worked for a factory that manufactures IS parts, although I didn't know they were IS parts at the time. What all my co-workers and I thought was that it was just a standard military production facility. My job was to separate defective IS parts into their base materials and recycle them. One day, I guess an IS part that was actually functioning was somehow passed into my defective workload, and I found that it responded to my touch. After my superiors informed me, in complete secrecy, what I was really working with, I was interested in working with IS myself. They agreed to sponsor my education in return for me working with them for the next 5 years after I graduate."

"At the time, they neglected to mention that previously, only females could operate IS, and it wasn't until I read up more about it that I found that out. If I had known that I would be surrounded by pretty girls for my high school education, I would have immediately agreed." I jokingly added.

As Tatenashi-senpai lifted her legs on the couch between us, I cursed the irony because with my blurred vision, I could only imagine how smooth and soft the skin on her legs appeared to be as she continued shifting around, gradually coming closer to me, until I could smell her perfume in my nostrils, muddling my thoughts. The remainder of my interview proceeded as such, and I was thankful that I had memorized my fake background so well that at times, even I believed it, so even when I was rambling on about my childhood, it was about my fake childhood.

Coming out of the interview, the only things I remember are that I didn't let anything slip and that whenever I saw Tatenashi-senpai, I would become very nervous, and my hormones would start racing. I was a relatively shy guy, after all. As lunch finally came around, I promptly fell asleep at the lunch tables.

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A relatively longer chapter this time. I really have no schedule for this, I'm just going to be writing whenever I have time. If this story doesn't receive any updates after a month, feel free to take this story and run with it. Please message me if you do so. It's fairly likely that I drop this fanfic once school starts again.


	4. Director's Paranoia

Thanks for the reviews I received so far, really appreciate it!

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"He is most likely legitimate, but we cannot rule out the possibility that he is a very experienced agent. However, I do not find that likely as he appeared to be very distracted by me as he was answering, to the extent that his eyes weren't even completely focused as he was talking. He did not appear to be deliberately unfocusing his eyes to avoid looking at me, since he still made an effort to focus his eyes when I moved closer." Tatenashi reported. She disliked talking to the director because the director never showed herself and would only talk through a communicator that changed the director's voice robot-like.

"You wouldn't be lax in your duties, would you? You know what happened to the guard who failed her duty in guarding the previous boy's room." The monotone voice issued from the speaker.

"No, of course not. I will continue observation." Tatenashi shivered. While the director had kept IS Academy running efficiently for the last decade, she found it hard to imagine what could keep the director enforcing this method of communication for so long.

"I find it hard to believe that we've suddenly had two male IS pilots in two years. Since the first escaped during interrogation, it's highly likely he was affiliated with some other organization, working as a spy. I have a better idea. Pretend you suspect nothing about the boy. Do not do anything if you find him snooping around. We will continue to observe and find who is behind this boy, as this unknown organization will simply send someone else. Also, please run a check on all of the rest of the students as well; I find it hard to imagine that they would not simply send a female student in first, to mesh better with the typical incoming student population. Inform the rest of the students that they are not to inquire into the boy's background; we don't want him getting spooked and leaving. It is of critical importance we find out who is behind this. Understood?"

"Yes, Director-san."

"Dismissed."

Exiting the room, Tatenashi remained deep in thought. Despite her report to the director that the boy was not a threat, the director seemed convinced that Orimura wasn't here to learn. As her feet directed her to the cafeteria, her stomach realized that she did not have lunch, and it was almost dinnertime. She saw a mass of students already there, so she patiently waited behind them, while wondering if the director had some other information about Orimura she wasn't sharing. Then she started to process the whispered conversations and hushed giggles around her – wait what? Why were they whispering? She looked up for the sources, and found most of them staring at a particular boy sleeping on the table. Then she realized that none of them knew about Orimura's enrollment. Well, first things first. She needed to limit Orimura's contact with the rest of the students before she could inform the students about the director's orders regarding Orimura. If Orimura discovered the director's special interest in him, he would be likely to leave if he were a spy. Since she didn't want to announce the director's orders to everyone in case Orimura woke up, and she couldn't find any pretext to keep the other students away currently, she grabbed Orimura by the arm, shaking him to wake him up. Blushing slightly amid the renewed gossiping as she realized how this looked, she led him out of the cafeteria.

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I anticipate writing 1 or 2 more chapters before releasing the first chapter onto fanfiction. I would have released yesterday, but fanfiction told me I had to wait 24 hours after I registered an account to publish a fanfic. :O

I have no clue what the pairings will be, probably nothing concrete that I can foresee in the close future. I'm open to suggestions though :P. I think I said somewhere that I'm not willing to write long chapters; after seeing how short each chapter is, I'll work on making each chapter longer.


	5. A Friend?

A/N: stahp asking me for longer chapters, I'm working on it :S. Chapter 7 is almost double the length of this chapter.

"You're pretty…"

Her grip momentarily became vice-like, which woke me up, then she immediately released her grip as we left the earshot of the other students.

_"__What?"_

And then I realized what I just said, and also that it was Tatenashi-senpai. As she turned to face me, I realized what I had been missing out on as I wore the contacts. Her face was, for lack of a better word, stunning. Suddenly in a panic, while trying not to get lost in those eyes with that gorgeously dark shade of red, I stuttered, "Ahh… you're pretty… uhh pretty… uhh…"

"I'm pretty pretty?"

"No! I just meant you were pretty… uhh… a pretty fast walker! Yeah! Wait what? Well, I mean, I don't mean you're not pretty, you're pretty… I guess, but… uhh…" I lamely trailed off, sweating under her stare. I mentally cursed that although I had agreed that I wouldn't have enough time to practice being interrogated, I hadn't asked for any training on how to deal with the opposite gender, which made up this academy entirely. I resolved that next weekend when I went to the village I would ask. But then she laughed.

"Aww, how sweet of you. Since you decided to sleep when you were supposed to join the others for a campus tour, I can show you to your room and classrooms, but after that we'll have to go back to the cafeteria, otherwise we'll miss dinner."

So as we passed by the classrooms, she told me a bit about each teacher and what I should expect from each of them. While chatting amicably, I realized with a jolt that this was the first time in a long time I had actually conversed comfortably with a girl of my age for a long time. When we reached a sign pointing to the student dormitories, I took that turn, but Tatenashi-senpai interrupted me.

"Hey don't go there. That's where all of the other students are rooming, but as you're a boy, we can't have you there. There'd be an international incident, literally, as keep in mind that many of the other students are here as representatives of their respective countries."

Oops. I continued following Tatenashi-senpai down a separate hallway.

"Instead, since we didn't have any rooms prepared, you'll get a faculty guest room as your permanent room, complete with its own bathroom, which you should be thankful for. The other students have a dorm partner and common bathrooms."

As we reached my home-to-be, I don't know what I expected from the security system, but certainly not a hand-scanner. After waving her own hand over, she motioned for me to do the same. As I did so, she explained, "Now our state-of-the-art security system has your palm keyed in, so other students won't be able to enter." I mentally told myself to include that in my report assessing the security of the academy.

"You'll be able to explore your room later. For now, let's head back for dinner before the lines are closed."

Along the way, we passed several students already done with dinner who were heading back to their dormitories. When we arrived, Tatenashi-senpai mentioned that she needed to be somewhere else, and grabbed a sandwich and left, leaving me to eat alone in the now mostly-empty cafeteria. As I grabbed my food and sat down at an empty table, I could still feel the remaining students' gazes on me, and guessed that their topic of conversation was not too far either. Unaccustomed to being the center of attention, I resigned myself to ignoring them, surprised at how much I missed the protective presence of Tatenashi-senpai. Thankfully, no one approached me for the duration of my meal. I was relieved that my first day was coming to a close without much incident, and that I wasn't detained for further questioning.

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So yeah, there's that. Drop a review if there's anything specific you want added into this fanfic! Thanks! Oh, and is hard to use. Formatting looked nice in Word, but it looks ugly online. I've also posted my MAL on my profile, come give me some anime recs :D.


	6. Rising Suspicions

_"I was relieved that my first day was coming to a close without much incident, and that I wasn't detained for further questioning."_

Fate is cruel indeed.

By the time I finished my own dinner, I was the only student remaining in the cafeteria. Having nothing else planned since I was not even permitted into the student dorms, I watched some people in the kitchen crew come out and clean up the dishes left on the table by the other students and take them back into the kitchens. Having been taught to be independent most of my life, I cleaned up my own dishes and brought them to the dish cart one of the custodians was pushing around. As I left my dishes there, a surprised pair of eyes met mine. And that's when I realized that the "custodian" was actually another girl of about my age, I estimated. I asked, "Are you a student?", thinking that all of the students were participating in the typical first-day student activities at the dorms.

"Ahh… no." She seemed slightly wary of me (and perhaps a little frightened?). I thought she would explain more, but she kept her head down and pushed the dish cart back into the kitchens. Do I really appear that scary? I made a move to follow, but seeing the kitchen door flaps close behind her made me pause. I wasn't exactly in the mood for any further conversation either, at the end of the day. Thinking that I could return to talk to her during any meal, I directed my steps back toward the dormitories.

As I made my way across the buildings, I was struck by how quiet the place was. Now that nighttime fell, the school grounds, apart from the lights around me, were lit for the most part by the moonlight shining across the surrounding lake and trees. It really was a nice campus, but as I relaxed in appreciation of the campus setting, I felt my senses tingle, as my training kicked in. Instead of looking around for an observer, I lowered my head so my features were covered in shadows as I looked around, moving only my eyes. I felt certain I was being watched. Sure enough, as I turned around as if observing more of the campus, I saw movement around one of the building walls. Of course I would be kept under watch; I was stupid for thinking that the school would allow me to roam around freely. Guess my act during the interview wasn't convincing enough. While mentally marking the place that was a blind spot with the crisscrossing shadows, I continued walking, as if I had seen nothing.

Under the new orders of the director, Tatenashi and some of the other patrol in the senior class were preparing for Orimura-kun's arrival close to the dormitories. While one guard was currently keeping watch on Orimura-kun, Tatenashi and another guard were getting ready to stage a scene.

As I passed the corridor leading to the girls' dorms, I heard Tatenashi-senpai speaking with one of her guards just out of sight around the corner. I was about to leave when I heard Tatenashi-senpai say, "The Director just told me that they're moving in some new top-secret developmental IS weaponry into the storage basement underneath the classrooms. We're just supposed to tell the students not to go there."

I knew there was still a guard watching me, and I wondered how a normal student would act. Surely the guard watching me would report to Tatenashi-senpai that I had overheard something I wasn't supposed to hear. I decided to do nothing for now, and just head up to my room. After unpacking my luggage which I knew they had gone through and inspected, I pondered both the fact that I knew they were suspicious of me and also of how well their weapons storage was guarded. I didn't know how I would assess the security without testing it myself. Before going to sleep, I recorded two separate logs: one as a student log on my computer which they were sure to see, and another on an external memory drive I kept on myself at all times with my true observations. The second log would be automatically relayed to my superiors every day at midnight. If they received no messages for an entire day, they would know something was wrong.

"You're sure he heard right?" Tatenashi asked.

"Positive. He paused by the corridor, just as you said he would, and continued to his room. The tracking dot stopped moving inside his closet, so I guess he hung up his uniform."

"Alright, good job. We'll just have to see if he makes a move then. I'll report to the director tomorrow morning. You can go to sleep now; I'll lock the doors for the night."

"Thanks, good night."

"Good night."

A/N: So yeah, this is the first chapter I wrote after seeing the initial reviews, as well as how abysmally short my chapters seem in comparison with those of other fanfictions I read. While I'm trying to write lengthier chapters, it seemed like a good place to stop here. :/ Right now I'm holding about a 3-4 chapter difference between what I'm releasing and what I'm writing, so in case I don't find any time to write, I'll still have material to release.


	7. A Normal First Two Weeks?

I awoke to the sound of knocking on my door. Opening my eyes, I saw light streaming around the edges of the curtain. Looking around sleepily, I didn't move until I heard the knocking again, this time more persistently. Opening the door, I was greeted by Tatenashi-senpai.

"Good morning, Orimura-kun. I guess I forgot to tell you what time classes start yesterday, since you didn't go on the tour. Right now's almost 8, classes start at 8:30. The desk clock next to your bed doubles as an alarm clock if you need it. Go get dressed and grab some breakfast to eat before class."

My first stupid thought was that I should just sleep until 8 everyday so I could be greeted by Tatenashi's pretty face every morning. Then I realized that was ridiculous and nodded. I wanted to be first into class so I could choose a desk at the very back of the classroom. I was only supposed to observe, after all, and not draw attention to myself. Originally, I wanted to find out how to get into the storage basement, but there wasn't enough time this morning. Rushing down to breakfast, I grabbed a glass of milk and some bread, so I could eat while walking back to my dorm room. I remembered I also wanted to talk to the kitchen-girl as well, but I guess that has to wait as well. A little disappointed I already accumulated so many things on my to-do list without classes even starting yet, I returned to my room, ignoring most of the stares I felt from the other students along the way. Being an all-girls school, I guessed that personal hygiene had slightly higher standards than the training camp I attended, so I decided to take a quick cold shower and to brush my teeth. I made a mental note to do that every morning before breakfast. When I finally arrived at the classroom, I found that I was actually slightly early, so at least I got a seat at the very back of class. I was slightly surprised to see an old man at the front of the class, with the name "Yukawa Hideki" written on the hoverboard. As students began to slowly file in, a girl dropped her bag on the desk next to mine and greeted me.

"Hi, good morning. I'm Shinonono Houki. I hope we get along."

Cautiously, I returned the introduction and greeting politely. The seats at the back of the classroom were filled up the fastest, and I remembered what Tatenashi-senpai told me yesterday: Yukawa-sensei was a brilliant physicist who theorized many of the principles governing air-to-air weaponry who had little patience for tomfoolery. But as the other students approached me one-by-one, I started to suspect them of a different motive. I concluded that despite whatever experience they might have had talking to the villagers, they were genuinely interested because I was probably the only male of their age they could actually talk to about IS. Slightly unnerved at that, my responses to their introductions gradually became shorter and shorter as I forced myself to politely introduce myself over and over. I let out a pent-up sigh of exasperation when Yukawa-sensei stood up and introduced himself. Then he motioned for the students to begin their self-introductions, starting with the front.

I was to collect information on all of the students to create a profile for each of the students to submit to my superiors, since many governments were concerned at how much potentially sensitive information their representative candidates released. Plugging in my external memory drive, I dutifully opened up the software that began to record information onto the drive through the computer-embedded desk. Thankfully, the visual was polarized so none of the other students could see what I was doing. Additionally, my glasses recorded a picture of each person to attach to the profile, so that the next time I saw the person, their name and profile would appear on the HUD of my glasses. Personally, I thought this was the most useful feature, especially since many of them were, well, quite beautiful, seeing that they were representative candidates of their respective countries. It was a real possibility that I would forget what they said while admiring their beauty.

After the introductions ended with me just simply repeating my plain introduction, Yukawa announced that IS Academy would be emulating the typical high school by holding a non-IS-related school fair at the end of the year, since IS Academy had, perhaps deservedly, received the negative reputation of denying its students a typical high school experience, which was revealed to be the most common reason why IS-qualified students did not attend IS academy. In addition, there was now an objective to visiting the village every weekend: students were to find a friend to bring to the school fair at the end of the year. He added, "And since many of you will only talk to males if necessary in the village, as demonstrated by previous students, there may be a small award if you bring someone of the opposite gender."

The moment homeroom ended soon after, a hubbub of noise immediately rose as everybody started to talk about this new "project". Having no one to really talk to, I just listened, along with my information-recording software. It seemed that most weren't too excited about the potential award itself, seeing that most of them were privileged and well-off enough to not be too interested in material gain. Some of my neighbors wanted to know if I had anyone in mind to bring, and I, being aware enough to at least know they were subtly trying to find out if I had a girlfriend, decided to answer with, "Maybe." I was more intent on letting my program listen to the surrounding conversation without interference from people asking me questions, although of course it recorded who was asking me, which was good since I wasn't paying a lot of attention.

The next period eventually started. As periods came and went, along with lunch, I felt that I already knew most of the material, but it seemed that most other students were equally prepared. I could tell because most of the students (and myself) were separately studying more advanced material. Unfortunately, the information I studied beforehand, which I expected would last at least a trimester, would only last a week at the pace the teachers were going at. I guess they were well-aware that many students already knew the very basics. Thankfully, the first trimester would be entirely theory, and we wouldn't be doing anything physical except for some simple body fitness training. I really wasn't looking forward to flying in an IS for my first time.

After about 2 weeks, the pace the teachers were going at finally slowed down, since I (and probably the others) no longer had the luxury of studying more advanced material, since the course had already caught up to what I knew. While I didn't struggle, as some of the other students did, the classwork was still very rigorous because a minimum amount of a typical high school's classes had been implemented, in addition to the IS classes, so that even if students chose to drop out, they would still be on course to earn a high school diploma elsewhere. This really limited the time I had to explore the campus. I found that the only class I really excelled in was the fitness training, which was to be expected, seeing that it was focused around body core strength, which a few of the girls (in my opinion) severely lacked. With the training I already had, I wondered if I could outrun the female fitness coach. I was already fairly certain that I could out-lift her, and absolutely certain she was more flexible. I couldn't be considered as not flexible, since I could both touch my toes and perform the shoulder stretch, but seeing her performance doing the splits and then transitioning to place her feet above her head was, well slightly disturbing if I had to honest. She was a nice person in that she allowed us independent study if we were judged to have the adequate aerobic fitness, strength, and flexibility. I never had the opportunity, nor did I want to, demonstrate how much I could truly lift.

The end of the second week was set to be the first weekend that would start the students going to the village every week thereafter. I particularly looked forward to this, as I wanted to get some help from other agents about how I didn't have much time to do any of the activities I should be doing, such as exploring the campus and ensuring their security was good. I also had no idea how to test the security of the storage basement (not that I had any time either) without getting caught. I had already reported problems encountered in my logs, so hopefully they had something prepared.

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It's a slim possibility, but I don't think I'll be able to write nearly as often, or at all, once school starts. I hope you enjoy the rest of your summer, time flies really fast! :O


	8. A Small Surprise

"It's been 2 weeks and he still hasn't done anything outside of what's expected from a typical student, Director-san." Tatenashi reported.

"I hope you don't mean anything by 'still'. 2 weeks is a fairly short time for him to make a move, considering that he needs time to acclimatize to his new surroundings. The storage basement hoax was probably too obvious. Orimura's one of the nine people that indicated they still need a group to go to the village. Hmm..."

For security purposes, students needed to go to the village in groups of between two to four. The director continued:

"Instead of randomly assigning the groups as we have done in the past, split the other eight of them into two groups of four, and assign a guard to go with them. You will go with Orimura. Tell them that this grouping was random. Become his friend, and tell him about yourself. Surely he will reciprocate and let something slip. Hide the recording device on my desk in your pocket, and turn it on for the whole day. I will have someone analyze the recording. If all else fails, go to our shipping warehouse; a worker there will give you a bottle. Here's what you must do…"

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Finally, the day to visit the village came. I was really looking forward to this as I desperately needed advice for my problems. I would probably need to find some way to leave the group I'd be randomly assigned to, since I hadn't indicated a preferred group. At the very least, we wouldn't attract as much attention in the village as we weren't required to wear uniforms. I guess I was the only one concerned with not attracting attention, with a faded pair of jeans and a simple t-shirt, as I saw pretty much all the girls flaunting expensive attire. As the students started to gather in front of the moving walkway, I waited patiently for the activities director to make an announcement regarding those with no groups. Instead, she started to wave groups through as students swiped their id cards to enter onto the walkway, so I assumed that those left over would be those with no groups. I immediately concluded that there were tracking devices attached to the id cards, as there was no way that the school would allow students into the village without knowing where to find them at any point. Finally, when there were only about ten people left, two guards waved the remaining over and accompanied them onto the walkway. I hastened to follow, but then I heard someone call, "Orimura-kun!"

With a pleasant jolt of surprise, I saw Tatenashi-senpai hurrying over, wearing a simple yellow summer skirt and a sun-hat. Straightening up, I immediately thought, "I should have worn something cooler" as I began to regret my choice of trying to be inconspicuous. Then I realized that of course these groups weren't randomly assigned; I'm still being kept under watch. Irritated with myself, I experienced a jolt of panic as I thought, "How am I going to be able to contact IIA support under constant observation?" I lost that train of thought as Tatenashi-senpai said, "Good morning, Orimura-kun!"

After responding in kind, she dragged me over to the walkway. After swiping both of our id cards, we walked along into the village. I'll admit I was slightly excited to be touring the village with a beautiful girl next to me, despite that she was only there to keep a watch on me. But as she brought me around the village, introducing me to the shops, I gradually forgot that she was there only as a guard. As I was slightly shy around beautiful girls, I let her talk first, as she wound the conversation towards herself. I learned that she originally came to IS Academy on recommendation from someone else as a test run for a trimester, but that she enjoyed it so much that she wanted to stay here for the rest of her high school education. We made our way to a small café to get out of the hot sun to enjoy some of their renowned drinks.

Inside, we met some of her friends from the other local high school, all girls. After they greeted each other, her friends gestured to me and teased Tatenashi-senpai, "Another boyfriend?"

I immediately waved my hands in negative, embarrassed, while stammering, "N-no, I'm just… uhh… another student at - "

But Tatenashi-senpai cut me off. She sighed, used to their antics. "He hasn't been in this area before; I'm just showing him around." I guess I wasn't supposed to tell them I attended IS Academy.

I don't know why I was surprised by Tatenashi-senpai having a boyfriend; she really was pretty, and much more down-to-earth than many of the other girls at IS Academy. After Tatenashi introduced them to me, and I to them, I asked Tatenashi-senpai, "Another?"

But her friends immediately jumped in and exclaimed:

"Tatenashi-san's gone through so many boyfriends!"

"She's left them all with broken hearts, pining after her!"

"Don't get too attached to her, she won't reciprocate any affection!"

Tatenashi-senpai just sighed again. She told them, "Stop exaggerating. How am I supposed to get an actual boyfriend if that's the first thing you tell him?"

To me, she said, "They know perfectly well that I just wasn't ready for any serious relationships, seeing that I was already so busy with schoolwork, and now that I have guard captain responsibilities, I don't have time to pursue any relationships with boys from Hibiya High, as it would be almost the same as pursuing a long-distance relationship."

All I could say was, "I see."

Tatenashi-senpai went to go order a drink for me and herself, and I guess she meant for me to talk to her friends. But they were more interested where I came from and how I met Tatenashi-senpai. I didn't really know what to say, as I guessed I shouldn't tell them about me being a student at IS Academy. I said, "Tatenashi-senpai's been taking care of me since I arrived here" which was true. As I said that, they began giggling to each other. Did I say something wrong? They started to take out their phones, and seemed to open whatever camera apps they had. I looked to Tatenashi-senpai for assistance, who was just coming back with drinks. She had the same exasperated look as she had earlier. She began to say, "My friends here made me agree to something after the last time I turned down a boy. You see,-"

"Stop beating around the bush, TATENASHI-SAN IS SARASHIKI TATENASHI-SAN!" Her friends all screamed and giggled as I heard their cameras on their phones start clicking at my dumbfounded face. I was desperately thinking of whether I had called Tatenashi-, err, Sarashiki-senpai by her first name in front of anyone. I don't think I did, I never really talked to her in front of other students… I think? I turned toward Taten-, Sarashiki-senpai, feeling miffed. Ugh, it was hard not to think of her by Tatenashi-senpai.

She seemed to know what I was thinking, and said, "No, you never called me that with other students. You don't talk much in front of them." She cringed apologetically and seemed to be hoping I would forgive her. I didn't really know what to think. I didn't really want to give her friends any more ammo either, even though they kept pestering me with questions.

After giving a few vague answers, they lost interest in me and returned to talking among themselves about girl stuff. I was disappointed when Sarashiki-senpai joined her friends in their conversation, but then chuckled at myself, thinking that it was nice that they were such close friends despite Sarashiki-senpai only having the opportunity to meet them every weekend. I was surprised when a waiter brought lunch around. Checking the time on my glasses' HUD, surprise, surprise, it was actually lunch time. I guess Sarashiki-senpai ordered for us when she was at the counter. Resigning myself to looking out the window while enjoying my fruit smoothie (which was actually really good) and the meal (which, to be honest, wasn't), I tried (and failed) to identify which fruits went into the smoothie. Then I remembered that I needed to meet up with IIA. They said they would come find me, so thinking that I needed to get somewhere without any people, I checked to see that Sarashiki-senpai was deeply immersed in her conversation, then got up.

"Where are you going?"

Guess she was paying much more attention than I had thought. Having no other recourse, I said, "Restroom", and I, not amused, walked over to the restroom. Busy thinking of another way I could have IIA find me, I didn't see the restroom door swinging out at me until it was too late. It connected with the side of my face and my glasses, which were so vital in information-collecting, came off my face. Stumbling backward holding my head, I saw through scrunched eyes a man picking up glasses while apologizing profusely. I told him I was fine, and proceeded into the restroom while accepting my glasses back.

What I saw was amazing. Not the actual restroom itself, but my glasses had received an upgrade. Connecting the dots, I made to leave the restroom and look for the man, but he was gone. Returning to the restroom, there were some words floating across my glasses' HUD. It read:

"We've been monitoring the shipments into and out of this village. One shipment was to the shipping storage warehouse, which is actually owned by IS Academy secretly. They received a special package that wasn't a physical weapon, but rather a liquid, according to our long-distance scan. Unfortunately, we couldn't get any closer to it, but we do have a good idea of what it is. We believe it will cause the adrenal cortex to become more sensitive, and that it is targeted at you. Combined with a slight amount of alcohol, what it should do is cause more extreme reactions than expected. Unfortunately, we didn't have any time to develop anything specific against it, so all we can do is slow the rate at which it gets absorbed into your bloodstream. The best thing to do is to avoid it entirely, but if you do imbibe it, try to eat something cheesy; it slows digestion. Focus on what you have to do right now; answers to your other questions have also been inserted into your HUD, but we advise you to look through that slowly when you have time. Finally, the amount of information your glasses record has been enhanced; you will see once you see enough of something."

I was too absorbed with my new problems to be relieved that I would be receiving a good deal of help. At least now I knew I could depend on them to find me anywhere in the village. Nevertheless, all I had to do was ensure my food and drink weren't contaminated. I probably should leave the restroom now that I'd been in here for so long. Suddenly, I remembered that Sarashiki-senpai was actually the one who brought me my drink. I wondered if my current surge of adrenaline was due to the drink or from the recent news. Thinking furiously, I couldn't come up with any plan that wouldn't reveal that I knew what Sarashiki-senpai was up to, aside from drinking lots of water to dilute the effects. At least I only drank about half of the fruit smoothie. But I couldn't simply go to the counter and ask for water; they would wonder why I didn't just drink my smoothie. Groaning, I looked toward my only source of water: the water faucet.

* * *

As her friends left, Tatenashi took Orimura-kun to explore the rest of the village. She was hesitant to break the silence because Orimura-kun seemed not to be in a good mood. What she wanted to do was to go inside the clothing stores, since this was the first chance she had since the end of the last school year. However, she didn't want to drag Orimura-kun around with her. No doubt he wouldn't appreciate following her around while she was shopping. As they walked around the lakefront, she could feel the temptation of going into the clothing stores she passed rising. Resolving just to stay for a quick look, she asked Orimura-kun as politely as she could, "I'm just going in to take a quick check."

Orimura-kun responded, "Sure, I can wait outside for a few minutes."

Tatenashi needed to keep an eye on Orimura-kun, so she pleaded, "Come with me, I need your opinion."

Before Orimura-kun could finish, "I'm not a good person to ask", she dragged him in over his protests.

* * *

So now I'm stuck inside a girls' clothing store. At least I managed to escape from Sarashiki-senpai's grasp, so I'm just waiting by the door. I didn't really know where to look; all around me were these complete outfits that I couldn't help but blush when I imagined Tatenashi-senpai wearing them. Err, I meant Sarashiki-senpai. At least I didn't have to follow her to the back section of the store, where I could catch glimpses of undergarments showing between the aisles. Deciding to simply look out the window, I wondered why I wasn't being affected more by the smoothie. Maybe I had managed to dilute it enough, regretting the slightly metallic taste of the tap water stuck in my mouth. Three more girls passed by me entering the store. Having not seen them before, I guessed they were probably from Hibiya High. They all sported skimpy outfits consisting of a tank top and short shorts, which showed way more skin than I thought was even justified by the hot summer sun. I turned away when they caught me staring at them, trying to rid myself of their bright shapely legs engraved in my eyes, but not before I saw them smirking and giggling at me. I returned to staring out the window, regretting more than ever that I entered the store, although admittedly it hadn't really been my choice.

I heard Tatenashi-senpai call me, and I wanted to somehow ask her to leave, when I saw her dressed in a dark red skirt. I immediately focused on looking slightly above her, not wanting to be caught looking at, well, other places. She asked me the question I'd been fearing.

"Well, how do I look?"

"OK, I guess…"

"You aren't even looking at me…"

Well. That was unfortunate. I guess I could spare another glance, then I noticed that the skirt matched the color of her eyes.

"Ehh… it looks good…?"

"Hmm, ok." She didn't sound very convinced.

Well, crap. Now she's gonna go back and find something else. I should've just told her it looked really nice, then we could be on our way. But I guess my impatience showed on my face, as she came out, looking slightly disgruntled, and without even waiting for me, exited the store. I didn't have much choice but to follow.

At least she seemed to cheer up as we walked along the waterside. There was a good deal of people there, and I think they got the wrong idea about Sarashiki-senpai and me. I immediately started to walk slightly further away from Tatenashi-senpai.

We soon left the shopping district, and entered the shipping district. Sarashiki-senpai seemed conflicted, but didn't voice anything. Instead, she pointed out one of the many nondescript-looking warehouses, saying, "That's actually owned secretly by the school. I actually have something to pick up there. Can you wait outside?"

Without waiting for an answer, she went inside. Huh. No doubt she was picking up the hormonal liquid. Now I really regretted drinking all that tap water. Ugh. She didn't even pick it up yet. I didn't even finish more than half of my drink, thinking it was spiked. I sighed, and wished I could be drinking it while waiting outside in the hot weather.

At least she didn't take long. I didn't see her holding any container, so I assumed it was in her purse. Wondering how she would try to get me to ingest it, and also where we were going, I followed her, guessing that she didn't really want it either, since she looked even more down than when we left clothing store.

* * *

A/N: Uhh, I'm just gonna cut it off here. I know, I have terrible pacing issues, considering that I think the first chapters were about 400 words at most, and this one's about 2500. I guess by this point it really seems like it's TatenashixIchika.


	9. SORRY ALL

A big thank you to all those who've been following me and giving me reviews. I really appreciate it.

Unfortunately, school started for me today, and I won't have very much (if at all) time to continue this story. I might restart it next summer.

If anyone else wants to continue this story, go ahead. But just please drop me a PM first :P.


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